Yet a Stranger (The First Quarto #2) - Gregory Ashe Page 0,113

Rabbit. She knew you and Cal had argued. And you were afraid she was going to tell someone. The night of the demonstration was the perfect opportunity: everybody would assume it was the Volunteers. You made sure you looked the part. You wore the right gear. You planned the perfect escape.”

“Yeah?” Wayne tapped the phone. The blue haze intensified again as the screen woke. “Let’s talk about it when the police get here.”

Auggie laughed. “You don’t want the police here.”

“We’ll see who’s laughing when—”

“Oh, it’ll be us,” Auggie said. “We’ll be laughing. You’ve been a fucking joke your whole life.”

“Shut up. Yes, I need officers at my parents’ house. I caught two people trying to—”

“You’re the punchline to a joke that this family has been telling for thirty years, right?

“Shut up,” Wayne shouted.

“I didn’t see it until right now, but it all makes sense: you’re a joke. That’s why you sit around your apartment drinking beer by yourself. That’s why they turned your room into a fucking home office. That’s why you’re so hard on Orlando; you were so glad when Orlando came along. So relieved that someone else might get dumped on for a while. That’s why you ride him harder than anyone.”

“Shut the fuck up! Shut up!”

“You’re the oldest boy, but you must be shit at everything you touch. Cal was the better athlete. Cal was the better businessman. Cal was even better at partying. I bet after all those pills you popped to get big, you’ve got balls the size of grapes and a dick as hard as a piece of licorice. No wonder Cal had a girl while you had to sit on the couch at home with a finger up your ass.”

Wayne’s hand with the phone dropped to his side, a tinny voice asking questions. His pulse fluttered in his temple. Everything human had been ground out of his face; he looked like he was wearing a Wayne mask. His fingers spasmed, and the phone hit the carpeted landing with a soft sound.

“He’s a kid,” Theo said, moving in front of Auggie. “He’s just a kid. He’s saying dumb shit to rile you up.”

“Yeah,” Auggie said. “That explains a lot. You’re obsessed with Orlando’s dick. That’s why you call him Peepee. Did you catch a glimpse of it one time, and now you can’t get it out of your head? Your baby brother with a big old swinging cock, when you couldn’t jump start yours with anything less than a lightning bolt.”

“Auggie, enough,” Theo said. “Wayne, just walk it off. He’s saying stupid, kiddy stuff, and you’re going to do something really stupid because of it.”

“I bet you stay home nights, playing with your dried-up Twizzler, thinking about Orlando’s giant dick.”

The sound Wayne made was somewhere between a scream and a roar. Theo was ready for him when he charged. There wasn’t any finesse behind Wayne’s attack, just rage and force. He clubbed at Theo’s head, and Theo pulled back. The punch still clipped him, a low heat on the side of his head, and then he moved. Shifting his weight, he reached for Wayne’s other arm, intending to swing him around and lock his arm behind his back.

Instead, Auggie shoved Theo out of the way, screaming, “Come on, motherfucker. Come on. I’ll show you a fucking kid.”

Theo stumbled. He landed on his ass, and his head cracked against the wall. For one crazy moment, he felt like he had front-row seats, right at the ropes.

Auggie took a swing. A total whiff. Wayne saw the opening; Theo saw it too, how Auggie overextended the punch, his whole body carried in a quarter circle by the force he had put behind the blow. It was a stupid, showoff way to try to hit a guy. The way, Theo thought in the bizarrely distanced clarity of the moment, kids fight in a high-school hall.

Wayne took the opening. His first punch was a jab that almost looked like a love tap. Auggie’s head rocked back. Blood sprayed from his nose. The second was a hook, Wayne’s knees and hips generating the power behind the blow. He caught Auggie on the side of the head, just above the ear. Auggie’s eyes rolled up in his head. For a moment, he stayed on his feet, his body unconsciously attempting to keep its balance with a drunken sideways step. Then he went down.

Wayne loomed over the boy and hit him again.

Theo’s world went white. He was vaguely aware of regaining his